I like to get a holiday in before the school holidays start, late June-first week in July. But the weather had pushed my work on with no sign of time for a holiday, I decided to take a week anyway, either the 4th of 5th week of June. With strong winds forecasted for the weekend 18-19th June, I pushed the holiday plans to the following week starting 24th and continued with work though another week. On the Sunday 19th Vicki and I went out to Elektra to get her ready for our holiday, I topped up the water tank and the diesel tank, checked the engine.
If was a lovely sunny week, great for getting on with the work but once the weekend arrived the forecast was for strong southwesterly winds and rain! We decided to go aboard anyway and anchor in Gillan close in to Flushing Cove which has good shelter from SW winds. So on Friday we went aboard, in Flushing Cove were the 2 Sadler 26s of Kevin and Colin who we know. It’s a mini Sadler Rally!
The next day Kevin went to Falmouth and Colin bravely sail for Fowey as there was a bit of a lull forecasted in the afternoon. But we stayed though the wind and the rain of that weekend. On the brite side when we thought of things we had forgotten, I just zoomed back to the pontoon in the dinghy and drove home to get which ever item we needed. It was nice to have some time for R&R.
On Monday 27th with the tide we planned to sail to Fowey, the tide stream was running east between 1440-2040hrs so there was no hurry to get away. So Vicki cooked a mid morning brunch and after washing up we slowly got ready to leave Gillan. I lifted and stowed the anchor while Vicki slowly motored Elektra out of Gillan, the time was 1320hrs. Which would be fine as the 1st hour was crossing Falmouth Bay which would be a cross tide. I set just the genoa for this down wind sail and stopped the engine, very quickly Elektra was showing 5-6kts SOG. In the first hour Elektra covered 6nm in the southwesterly force 4-5. The sea built up more and more with each mile we covered, it didn’t look nice looking behind! But Elektra took it all in her stride. We passed Cannis Buoy 1750hrs having logged 23nm, still sailing right in though Fowey Harbour enterance before starting the engine again. We decided to motor Elektra up river to Wiseman’s Reach for good shelter from the coming SW blow. We moored up at 1830hrs having logged 27nm. We quickly lowered the dinghy from its davits and fitted the outboard and set off down river and into town for dinner. Returning back to Elektra just before dark.
The next day was a SW gale and rain so we stayed aboard and read books and mags. On Wednesday the wind easied with showers, we braved going back into town for shopping and another pub lunch.
Tha forecast for Thursday was W force2-3 incressing WNW force4-5 later with more strong winds forecasted for the weekend. We decided it would be best to head west while we still could, back to our favorite anchorage in the Precuil River. At 0700hrs we cast off and morored Elektra back down river and out of Fowey. There was a very light head wind, so we continued to motor Elektra SW towards the Dodman Point which we rounded at 0900hrs. The wind stayed light until about 1050hrs when 2 scalls and heavy rain passed over, the wind incressed to SW force5 but being nearly there continued to motor. We dropped anchor in the Precuil River at 1115hrs having logged 22.5nm. Later at HW we motored Elektra back out the river a little and anchored off “Place” which would give better shelter for the coming SW strong winds. There we stayed for the rest of our holiday before stailing back to Gillan on Sunday 3rd of July.
It hadn’t been the best weather for a holiday but we had a lot of R&R which we needed after a busy spring and early summer. We had only covered 57nm in 9 days aboard!
Love Sailing 